Archival Times
Big data archives offer us a previously unknown sense of security; for one, the huge bodies of
information that internet archives contain can augment our human capacities to those of
prosthetic gods at the click of a button. Meanwhile the mass collection of data by corporations
and agencies of the state promises to make the world’s populations increasingly traceable and, it
is hoped, predictable or even preemptable.
As the archive moves from a regime of existent truth to one of future anticipation, we seem to
have garnered command of the future in the form of cultural fluctuations, flu epidemics, criminal
acts, environmental disasters and terrorist attacks. Yet, do the predictive possibilities of digital
storage institutions provide a false sense of security? Recent scandals, including the Wikileaks
and NSA revelations, have caused experts and observers to question not only the statistical
validity of the diagnoses and prognoses conjured from big data, but also the broader implications
of their large-scale determination of knowledge.
This event brings into focus the question of archival temporality. It focuses on archives not only as
places of documentation but also of speculation, asking: What do archives tell us about time? And
what happens when we reconfigure the archive from a place that testifies historic events to a
machine that projects futures back onto our presents?
The aims of our endeavour are, at least, threefold:
1.
to acquaint ourselves with, digest and discuss today’s technological condition and its
effects in relation to temporality;
2. to reflect on the changing nature of ‘archives’ and ‘big data’ under this condition;
3. to relate these reflections to the emerging field of critical big data
This is meant to be a very interactive workshop equally based on input lectures and the
participants’ experiences, concepts and ideas.
Programme
KUA Room 27.0.9
10.00-10.15:
10.15-11.00:
11.00-12:30
12.30-13.00
Introduction: Kristin Veel and Nanna Bonde Thylstrup
Manu Luksch keynote: MoonWalking in RealTime
Screening of Dreams Rewired (dir. By Manu Luksch)
Plenary discussion with Manu Luksch and Frederik Tygstrup, IKK
13.00-14.00: Lunch
KUA Room 27.0.47
14.00-14.15
14.15-15.00
15.00-17.00
Kristoffer Ørum: Futuers
Framing: Kristin Veel and Nanna Bonde Thylstrup
Coming-together and building a research archive
20.00-22.00: Dinner. Cinemateket (ibid.)
MANU LUKSCH
is an artist and filmmaker who interrogates conceptions of progress and scrutinises the effects of network
technologies on social relations, urban space, and political structures. Her installation and procedural works often
involve novel processes, like urban planning led by children, or a kayak taxi service along urban canals, which doubles
as a research vehicle into the future of transport. Her widely acclaimed speculative fiction film FACELESS (2002–07),
compiled from CCTV footage recovered under the UK’s Data Protection Act, was voiced by Tilda Swinton, and
translated into nine languages. It is included in the Collection Centre Georges Pompidou and on the Chris Marker
website Gorgomancy. Her latest film, DREAMS REWIRED (Luksch/Reinhart/Tode 2015), which will celebrate its
Denmark premiere at CPH:DOX later in November, traces the desires and anxieties of today’s hyper-connected world
back more than a hundred years, when telephone, film and television were new. Using rare, and often unseen
archival material from nearly 200 films to articulate the present, DREAMS REWIRED reveals a history of hopes to
share, and betrayals to avoid.
www.ambientTV.NET
Synopsis DREAMS REWIRED
DREAMS REWIRED (narrated by Tilda Swinton) traces the desires and anxieties of today’s hyper-connected world
back more than a hundred years, when telephone, film and television were new. As revolutionary then as
contemporary social media is today, early electric media sparked a fervent utopianism in the public imagination –
promising total communication, the annihilation of distance, an end to war. But then, too, there were fears over the
erosion of privacy, security, morality. Using rare (and often unseen) archival material from nearly 200 films to
articulate the present, DREAMS REWIRED reveals a history of hopes to share, and betrayals to avoid.
http://www.dreamsrewired.com/
FREDERIK TYGSTRUP
Frederik Tygstrup is the director of the Copenhagen Doctoral School in Cultural Studies and Associate Professor of
Comparative Literature at the University of Copenhagen. His primary specialization is in the history and theory of the
European novel and his present research interests focus on the intersections of artistic practices and other social
practices, including urban aesthetics, the history of representations and experiences of space, literature and
medicine, literature and geography, literature and politics.
ORGANIZERS
Uncertain Archives, www.uncertainarchives.dk
For more information please contact:
Nanna Bonde Thylstrup: nannab@hum.ku.dk / 26818153
Kristin Veel: kristinv@hum.ku.dk / 20404914
Information about venues
 KUA, Njalsgade 136, room 27.0.09 (morning) and 27.0.47 (afternoon):
http://humanities.ku.dk/calendar/kua_map_2013/KUA-kort_en_190913.jpg
https://goo.gl/maps/XinEx8D9v9u
 Cinemateket, Gothergade 55: https://goo.gl/maps/hhgVoEtDNNs
Njalsg ad e 136 - Go ogle M ap s
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